The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman
Family Foundation
andAll-Creatures.Org

Letters and Responses

Letter from Zita Dogwoods and Game Fishing - 23 Oct 2004

Hello there,

I am writing from Christchurch the garden city of New Zealand, and today my
husband and I are celebrating our 31st Anniversary.

We invited another couple after church to come and share a meal with us, and
the wife brought in a lovely bunch of dogwood. This is the first time I had ever
seen dogwood, I had only heard the name in American

Ideals Poems, and had always been fascinated as to what it might look like.

Having my own flowers prompted me to look up dogwood on the Internet, and so
I came across your lovely site which I will continue to explore more thoroughly.

I noticed the comment about how we treat animals as humans, and wanted to
tell you about what is happening in our part of the world.

One of the SPCA inspectors - you would say ASPCA - here has spoken out about
big time game fishing - particularly of Marlin - up to 14 hours at a time, and
wanting to bring in a law against it. They could use a different line and bring
them in much faster, but that would spoil the 'sport' and pleasure they seem to
find in fighting a poor defenseless fish. Humans seem to think that fish donít
feel pain!

You can imagine the reaction of these big game fishermen who make big money
out of taking tourists out on their boats. And so the argument will rage on, but
hopefully, it just might start people thinking about what they are doing with
God's wonderful creatures.

God bless your lovely site!

Zita and Allen

Reply by Frank and Mary

Dear Zita and Allen:

Thank you very much for writing to us. Happy Anniversary! We've been married
for over 43 years, and our love has only matured and grown over the years. We
wish the same for you.

It's unfortunate that so many humans are as hard of heart as they are, and
that the churches aren't doing more to end the violence and suffering that our
fellow human beings are inflicting on each other, the animals, and the
environment. We started our Internet ministry seven years ago to help open the
road to compassionate living that Jesus taught.